Sunday, July 19, 2009

Preface 1961 Edition: The History of Madness

Reading to the Preface of 1961 Edition: The History of Madness

We are inherently mad and by this basis we hope to unravel that specific moment in history when non-madness took over and expelled madness by the logical distinction of reason and unreason. This intriguing binary solely exists on one another by scientifically claiming their independence. In the sense that madness can exist only due to non-madness while reason owes its birth to unreason. And if we are to understand either of them separately or as a unified-binary, one needs to be stripped of his/her predetermined notions on either of them.

The most influential tool used in creating this separation – language. It no longer allows either of them to have a stable platform to appreciate one another; it pushes reason and unreason into two different realms of functioning where any type of communication is considered preposterous. And it is in this –silence- where we can hear only monologues that a discipline like psychiatry is rendered possible.

(Page xviii)

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